Wednesday, 13 March 2013

Woman who was beaten up by punjab police, barges into Assembly

Chandigarh: A young woman was thrashed and abused by Punjab Police officials in full public view in Punjab's Tarn Taran district recently on Wednesday tried to barge into the Punjab Assembly complex during the ongoing budget session.

The woman was stopped at the entry gate of the assembly building by security personnel, leading to ruckus at the spot. Congress leaders accompanying her jostled with security personnel. The woman could not reach the Assembly hall.

Leader of Opposition and senior Congress leader Sunil Jakhar was with the 21-year-old woman when she tried to enter the Assembly.

The woman, accompanied by her father, said she had come to the assembly complex to demand justice. Punjab Police on Monday arrested two policemen who had thrashed the woman.

"She did not have any entry pass. We stopped her for security reasons," a security official told reporters.

The assembly complex, located in Sector 1 here, is a high-security area manned by para-military forces and security personnel from Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.

The young woman was slapped, pushed, abused and hit with a baton by policemen in uniform in Punjab's frontier district of Tarn Taran on March 3.

Four to five police personnel were caught on camera assaulting the young woman and her father after she reportedly complained to police against some taxi and truck drivers harassing her near a marriage hall in Tarn Taran district, 280 km from here.

The incident was recorded by a bystander on his mobile phone Sunday, and later aired by TV news channels.

An embarrassed Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had last week ordered a magisterial probe into the incident. Badal directed the Tarn Taran district magistrate to ascertain the causes and circumstances which led to the incident and submit an inquiry report in three weeks.